Shula has control of this team.

[TerryP]

Normally, I avoid just about everything from the Post Herald. However, I do make an exception in some cases like this one. Greg Wallace, who writes for the Post Herald and Bama Magazine penned this article recently and it's definitely a "must read."

It was late Friday afternoon, first week of the University of Alabama's preseason football practice. Full pads were 12 hours away from going on, and tempers were boiling.

Already that afternoon, two fights between players had broken out, with assistant coaches pulling away and separating teammates who were supposed to care about one another.

Near the end of practice, during 11-on-11 team work, senior linebacker Cornelius Wortham shoved redshirt freshman Matt Caddell just a tad too hard for Caddell's liking.

Caddell shoved back. Before anyone could blink, a scrum of players — offense vs. defense — were pushing and fighting and yelling. When assistants broke up one fight, another broke out five feet away.

Mike Shula had seen just about enough.
The second-year Alabama head coach blew his whistle and called his entire team into a huge huddle around him, a gesture normally reserved for end-of-practice comments.

In the middle of the group, Shula's voice raised 20 decibels higher than many practice observers had ever heard him speak. His angry tone formed words you'd normally hear from a sailor mouth or that of an average hoodlum. Words you can't print in any family newspaper. Interspersed were phrases like "show your class," "act like you're a team," and "play with some discipline."

The huddle broke up, and practice resumed without further incident. It was a side of Shula few have seen since he arrived in Tuscaloosa in May 2003 to clean up the mess left behind by the departures of Dennis Franchione and Mike Price within five months of each other.

This was not the calm, easy-going "player's coach" who the Crimson Tide raved about all through 2003's 4-9 disaster, the school's worst record since 1955.

This was a take-charge, listen-to-me, take-no-prisoners Mike Shula.

"He took control of our football team," running backs coach Sparky Woods, a veteran head coach himself, recalled later. "In the year I've been here, he had more (angry) words in that conversation than any time I've been around him. That's not the Mike Shula calm.

That's the Mike Shula (saying) 'We've got to get this stopped, right now.

"'Sirens are going off.' That's what he was saying. Everybody heard the message he said. Not just the words he used."

Scroll about halfway down the page for the rest of this article

 

[BamaFlum]

Excellent read. Thanks for the link.

 

[Whammer Jammer]

I don't remember what year, I think it was 85, when I would watch Shula on the sidelines in the OLines faces because they had missed an assignment etc. Yes he has a calm about him but there is a fire as well...I think that combo will assist him in his journey to become a great coach!!

Thanks for the read TP.

 

[dayhiker]

"Woods said much of the staff worked together well, but still felt confused about what they were asked to do and why. "


I thought this line was interesting. I can understand the confusion, but I wonder what was meant by MUCH of the staff worked well together?

 

[TerryP]

"Woods said much of the staff worked together well, but still felt confused about what they were asked to do and why. "


I thought this line was interesting. I can understand the confusion, but I wonder what was meant by MUCH of the staff worked well together?

There are some different philosophies which has lead to some tension. That's about all of the *details* I feel comfortable sharing.

 

[dayhiker]

Fair enough. Wasn't sure if I was nitpicking or if there was something actually there. Sounds like somethings there. I'll assume this is along the lines of previous conversations we've had.

Thanks.

 

[TerryP]

Yep.

 

[Vertical]

But later on in the article, it mentions how the staff is now all "behind the same plow, pushing in the same direction". Is that an accurate statement?

 

[klj59]

Vertical I can only hope that any members of the staff that did not get in line would have been let go. That being said I believe they are on the same page as CMS...RTR